Housing architecture may be reduced to an unqualified cultural craft putting the candles on the cake of construction economy. If this is true, even just to a minimal extent, architects should reflect on housing design in systemic ways. Innovation of any modus operandi will have to be measured against their effectiveness. Hans addresses three particular dimensions of housing design.
First, architects will have to be more accurate in understanding what their market is. An impressive attempt to do so has been made by Lukas Imhof and Miroslav Sik with their book Midcomfort.
Second, architects will need to be able to negotiate on their work, or better: to take part in the decision-making process on key aspects of the scheme. An analysis of Luigi Snozzi’s Monte Carasso village renewal illustrates how this engagement resulted in architecture.
Third, architects must conceptualise the production of their building beyond the fragile design detail. Production has to be understood through the full supply chain and should include site operation, time scheduling, risk management etc.
Hans van der Heijden is an architect with a portfolio of housing, urban design, re-use, cultural buildings, and research. He co-authored four editions of the Dutch Architecture Yearbook. He has been a professor in Cambridge and is lecturing at the Rotterdam Academy of Architecture.
This talk formed part of Economy Class, a symposium is concerned with the various economies at play around and within architecture, which was curated by Richard Hall.
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